Category Archives: My Thoughts

Raising Children

Leave a reply

As a parent I find myself struggling with the idea of raising my children. OK, “struggling” might be a bit to hard – I find myself asking “am I doing it right?” Of course, I don’t even know what right is. I do try to talk to other’s but often end up arguing with people who are so sure of their methods that I find it difficult to actually have a conversation. the best conversation I have are with people who are open to other thoughts / ideas / possibilities. This is not just limited to conversation about raising children but conversations about almost any topic.

Anyway, a friend of mine once mentioned a couple of things that really stuck with me and I wanted to be sure to capture them before I forget. His first comment was:

Raising your children has 3 stages.

  1. Age 1-4 foundation
  2. Age 5-12 discipline instilling
  3. Age 12-18 consulting

He also mentioned that he had 3 goals in raising his children.

  1. That they (his kids) have their own authentic friendship with God
  2. That they treat others with respect and compassion
  3. That they really enjoy their own existence.

– manzoor

Five Truly Essential Questions

Leave a reply

You should regularly ask yourself and others, according to Dean James Ryan.

  1. Wait, what?
    1. is at the “root” of all understanding
  2. I wonder . . . .
    1. Is at the “heart” or all curiosity
  3. Couldn’t we at least?
    1. Is at the beginning of all progress
  4. How can I help?
    1. Is at the “base” of all good relationship
  5. What truly matter?
    1. Is at the “heart” of life

Late Fragment by Raymond Carver

And did you get what
you wanted from this life, even so?
I did.
And what did you want?
To call myself beloved, to feel myself
beloved on the earth.
– manzoor

Apple AirPods

Leave a reply

Yes, they are now supposedly released and available. But if you go to their website the earliest you can get them shipped is late February. And it seems to be slipping slowly as time goes by. I have tried going to the store before they open – 7 days in about a 12 day period and have not been able to get one.

But people are getting them. I ran into someone at the Whole Foods Market the other day who had one on. I did chat with him for a few minutes and he seemed really pleased. though the one feature that is really driving me to it seems to not be as important to him – moving from Watch / iPhone to other Apple devices. He seemed quite satisfied moving from his Watch to iPhone back-and-forth.

– manzoor

Opinions

Leave a reply

We’re entitled to our “opinions”, or so we have been telling ourselves for a while now. But are really entitled our opinions? If we are all entitled to our opinions, what good is that really?

How about when the opinions contradict “fact(s)”? Or, how about when the opinion crosses over to judging others?

– manzoor

Cuddle

Leave a reply

The first time I heard about “cuddle” as a service was about a couple of years ago (maybe 3, maybe even longer). A friend mentioned that he had heard about such a thing and that it was fairly popular in big cities like New York. Come to think of it, I am not even sure that he mentioned that it was New York. All I do recall was that it was not widely found but where it was, it was apparently quite popular.

Had not heard anything since then. All of a sudden a different friend – this time mentioned this and added that she was disturbed. My immediate inclination was to “ask” what she was disturbed about – that such a service exists or that the demand exists?

Really was not in the mood for starting a debate / argument that would not really be honestly argued. So I did not add my $0.02 to the thread. But I have not been able to not think about it. the other thing that has been going thru my mind was another conversation another friend of mine was having a couple of months ago on how a huge percentage of married women / girls were being sexually exploited in Bangladesh. How their husbands were demanding unreasonable sexual favors just because they were married.

– manzoor